We examine the historical origins of the Greeks and Romans, which is still an open question among scholars. For their part, the Greeks and Romans had their own ideas about where they came from, which tells us who they <em>thought</em> they were.
Trade and travel were widespread throughout the Mediterranean basin from early times onward. It was largely through sea travel that Romans and Greeks came into contact—directly through personal exchanges and indirectly through artifacts.
Both Greeks and Romans had democratic tendencies and a predisposition to favor the aristocracy. Community, however, was more broadly defined among Romans, who came to accept the principle of universalism that was alien to the Greeks. This would have profound consequences.
It was the Greeks of Athens who first established trial by jury and sought to differentiate crime in terms of motive. It was the Romans who established the principle that the law is an organic entity that has to adapt to changing social, economic, and political conditions.
Both the Greeks and Romans denied full human status to those at the bottom of the social ladder—slaves, foreigners, women, and the disabled. Roman society, however, offered far more opportunities for advancement for hard-working slaves than Greek society did.
From very early in their history, the Romans were subject to Greek influence, both directly from Greek colonists who had settled in southern Italy and indirectly from the Etruscans, Rome's neighbors to the northwest, who were in contact with Greek traders.
After defeating Carthage in the Second Punic War, Rome turned its attention to the Hellenistic world of the eastern Mediterranean.
Greek religion made a deep impact on the Romans, whose animistic beliefs differed from the anthropomorphic pantheon of the Greeks. The Romans assimilated not only Greek gods, but also deities from many of the other cultures with which they came in contact.
In 190 B.C. the Romans abandoned their "velvet glove" policy toward the Greeks and adopted a more hard-line attitude, in which self-interest came increasingly to the fore. Over the next 45 years, almost the whole Greek-speaking world came under Roman domination.
We trace the dying embers of Greek independence down to Octavian's defeat of Mark Antony and Cleopatra in 31 B.C., which marked the end of the Hellenistic period. Rome was now the undisputed ruler of the entire Mediterranean world.
The Greeks lost to the Romans for several reasons: They failed to grasp Rome's determination to bring stability to the region, Rome had a more efficient military machine, and the Greeks' endemic factiousness left them hopelessly divided.
Relations between the Greeks and Romans were highly ambivalent, with elements of both philhellenism and hellenophobia on the part of the Romans. But in general, elite Romans deeply appreciated the achievements of Greek civilization.
Greek was already a highly sophisticated vehicle of literary expression at a time when Latin was still in its infancy. By the 2nd century B.C., literary Latin was developing rapidly. Because the Greeks were reluctant to learn Latin, it was primarily the Romans who became bilingual.
We explore leisure activities among the wealthy, including the gymnasium and symposium for Greeks and the public baths and convivium for Romans.
Sex and sexuality did not have the same significance in antiquity as they do in modern Western society. One of the most profound differences is that there was an inherent asymmetry to most sexual relations in terms of age and social status. <em>Note: This lecture deals frankly with sexuality and contains graphic material that may not be suitable for all audiences. Parental discretion is advised.
Death was a ubiquitous presence among the Greeks and Romans. Though both cultures placed great emphasis on continuing ties between the living and the deceased, the Romans incorporated the dead into their lives to a much greater degree than did the Greeks.
In the 2nd century B.C., the Romans became less hospitable to foreign gods. For the first time, they banned Greek cult practices, particularly those associated with the god Dionysus. On assuming power, Augustus introduced ruler cult.
With the exception of Rome, almost all the greatest cities in the Roman Empire were predominantly populated by Greeks. These adapted well to the loss of political freedom. We look at Alexandria, Antioch, Pergamum, and Ephesus, among others.
We examine how Greeks in their capacity as slaves and subjects, and Romans in their capacity as masters and rulers, coexisted somewhat uneasily.
The Augustan Principate marks the advent of a unified Mediterranean culture under Roman rule. At the same time, it was a world that had become deeply influenced by Greek culture.
Romans developed a taste for Greek art from the plunder of conquered Greek cities. Thereafter, they began acquiring it by commissioning Greek workshops to produce copies of famous originals. The Roman style of collecting effectively created the notion of a work of art.
Although possessing deep stylistic similarities, Greek and Roman architecture employed markedly different building methods and materials, was constructed on different scales, and fulfilled different functions. The Romans were the first to use architecture to serve the masses.
Greek scientific wizardry is impressive even by the high technological standards of today. While the Romans were less interested in scientific discovery, they were attuned to its practical benefits.
The invention of rational medicine is one of the most important discoveries of the Greeks—remarkable for its absence of any appeal to magic, religion, or superstition. Although the Romans were initially suspicious of Greek doctors, they came to rely increasingly on them.
The epic is an ancient genre that achieved near perfection in Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. The Roman poet Virgil drew on Homer and other sources to create the Aeneid, the most sustained and successful fusion of Greek and Roman literary form and style.
The Greeks invented Western drama. Early on, two genres evolved—tragedy and comedy—both of which were appropriated and adapted by the Romans.
The Romans did not slavishly imitate their Greek literary precursors; they either adapted a genre to their taste or else they completely transformed it. We look at how the Romans appropriated and developed love poetry, satire, history, and the novel.
Among Greek approaches to education, Sparta's harsh schooling of boys and Athens's tutoring in rhetoric by sophists are the best known.
We investigate how Greek philosophy shaped the consciousness of the Roman elite, including generals, politicians, and even emperors. In so doing, it influenced not only how the Romans saw their world, but also how they sought to understand their place within it.
The obsession with Greek culture was so great on the part of the emperors Nero and Hadrian that it can be described as "hellenomania"—an infatuation shared by many that was based on an idealized view of the Greek world and its values.
The inherent conflict between monotheism and polytheism made the position of the Jews particularly uncertain in the Roman Empire. As relations deteriorated, the Jewish Revolt broke out in A.D. 66, leading to the destruction of Jerusalem.
Greco-Roman resources and its mentality greatly aided the development and spread of early Christianity. Even by making martyrs out of the early Christians, the Romans gave the Jesus movement a visibility that it would not otherwise have achieved.
From the 2nd century B.C., ambitious Romans indulged in lavish building programs in Athens. Shorn of independence, the Athenians continued to involve themselves in politics, although they showed a fatal knack for backing the wrong side.
There are competing theories to explain Rome's decline and fall, which might be better termed its upheaval and transformation. We investigate the instability that took hold in the half century from A.D. 235 onward, which ultimately saw the empire divided between East and West.
The eastern half of the empire survived the dissolution of the West by more than 1,000 years. Greeks and Romans went their separate ways, although, ironically, it was the Byzantine Greeks who saw themselves as the true Romans.
What did the Greeks and Romans get out of their relationship? How has the modern West claimed their legacies, and how has each of us been shaped by their influence? Greece and Rome remain two aspects of our collective cultural personality.
Professor biography